Turlock High varsity head coach John Williams told his daughter Jaydon that she needed to step up when the team’s other star player Jada Washington was fouled out with just over five minutes remaining in the game.
Jaydon took over and scored 13 fourth quarter points as the Bulldogs outscored the Eagles 22-14 in the final eight minutes to secure their 53-46 win.
“First of all, we cannot start off like we did in this game, we need to be ready and come out strong, do what we have to do and try our best,” said Jaydon. “The entire time in the back of my head I knew the significance of this game.”
The game had a little bit of everything, including a coach ejection when Enochs’ Troy Brady was booted out after getting a double technical call against him for using foul language.
Thursday’s Central California Athletic League battle between Turlock and Enochs High varsity girls basketball was critical for the Bulldogs of Turlock who were looking to keep their league title hopes alive with a win.
They kept things going and are currently tied with Pitman for first place in the CCAL standings with a league record of 7-1 with just a pair of league games left.
Three of the four seniors—who are also the team captains—knew what needed to be done and they came up big for their team. Washington, Williams and Sofia Andres combined for 48 of the team’s 53.
Williams finished with a team-high 20 points while Andres added 13 points. Washington tallied 15 points.
The first half was a slew of misses and turnovers committed by Turlock, while Enochs was in control.
Their high-pressure defense caused Turlock to struggle in the first two quarters, despite going up 10-9 after the first.
Enochs followed their first with a scoring run in the second that saw them go on a 16-7 run.
The second half saw a completely different Turlock team than the first half, as the outcome proved.
“We get everyone’s ‘A’ game. It was ugly at first, they came out well and we came out kind of flat, so that explains the first half and when we went in, we’ve been down before and nothing we have not seen before, we just battled back,” said John Williams.
Turlock cut the lead in the third quarter to one after they trailed 32-31 heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, Washington fouled out with exactly 5:07 left in the game.
“When Jada was out, I told Jaydon she has to play and she took over the game,” said John. “A lot of coaches may think they have the best player in league, we definitely have the best in Jaydon, she refused to lose and worked so hard.”
From that point on, Williams took over as she knocked down 10 of the final 19 points.
Following the win, Turlock also clinched their fifth straight victory and 18th win of the season.
“It was one of those games where we couldn’t lose after what happened against Gregori,” said Washington. “We had that mindset that we will not take another league loss and in the first half I wasn’t hitting the shots, but I couldn’t just stop shooting, so I kept with it and when I kept it going the shots finally fell.”
Next up for the Turlock Bulldogs is a rematch, from home, against the only team that beat them in league so far this year (Gregori), with the game slated to start at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.
“We got fire for that Gregori game, we don’t like to lose and we don’t want to lose again,” Washington added. “The entire team feels it and we are going hard, because the CCAL title is on our mind and we want to win three league titles in a row, especially since some of us it is our last year as seniors.”
